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Saturday, November 14, 2009

And This is L.A.

Today was busy, busy, busy. After staying with the Gunther's in Redland, and enjoying a fabulous breakfast courtesy of Jay Gunther, we headed for our first store in Temecula. I'd never been to any of the Ensign stores and it was fun to see what a great job they have done. We arrived to find a gal waiting for me to sign a book for her mom, who was unable to make it. Very sweet. I hope she got lots of daughter points for that one.

After Temecula, we raced on yet more California feeways to the Riverside store. Helen and Judi were both wonderful and we were glad we were with Victoria Gunther since she has a lot of friends :-) Julie had a family of fans bring in every one of her titles--which was awesome.

We then went to the Upland store, where I ran into an old acquaintance from high-school--very strange, but in a good way--and Lael Littke showed up. She is just awesome, and it was fun to chat with her and catch up on things. I swore we took pictures with her but they aren't on my camera. Maybe I used someone elses?

By the time the signing was over, we were exhausted. We parted ways with Victoria and had our second sit down meal of the trip at Applebee's. It was super yummy and since we hadn't had time for lunch, very much appreciated. Then we gave Dora the address to our hotel and headed for 'home' at least tonight's version of home.

We ... are...so...tired. 40 hours of driving is starting to catch up with us. We've driven over 2,500 miles in 6 days, which just seems completely unreal. The rental car is going to kick themselves on the whole 'unlimited miles' thing.

Tomorrow we are going to be heathens and skip church in favor of sleep--the Sabbath is the day of rest, right? Then we get to hang with Melanie J. who is graciously allowing us to stay with her tomorrow night. We are really looking forward to it.

Not sure if we will report on tomorrow, but I might. Who knows? Monday we'll be in Fountain Valley and Newhall before heading toward Arizona. We found out today that Mesa is only about 6 hours from L.A., however, mapquest had shown us going through Lake Havasu, which is longer. Nice. Since our hotel rooms are non-refundable, we have no choice but to take the longer route. sigh. Next time we will talk to locals before we plan everything out.

Anyway, it's been a great week, we're half way through the tour and still not making squinty eyes at one another, that's rather remarkable.

7 comments:

Well, hopefully neither of you are needing back surgery but all that driving and you just may.Melanie J. is AWESOME and I'm excited for you guys to stay with her. Give her belly a pat for me and send loves to Baby E, Baby G, and Lil' Man J.

So glad all is going well on your adventure! About the GPS, nice name ... still haven't named mine. I call it plenty of names every once in a while but nothing I could repeat here. :-) If I have to get off the freeway and need an alternate route, I can depend on the GPS to turn a 15 minute drive into a 30 minute one. I have to call Don, give him my "coordinates" and then he gives me a "best route." Nutty. So ... be safe and have a great time! You're great!!